Development of Hand-drawn Figure Recognition Methods and Its Application to Computer-aided System for Tactile Graphics Production

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24501198
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Educational technology
• Research Institution: Toyama Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: TAKAGI Noboru 富山県立大学, 工学部, 教授 (50236197)
• Research Collaborator: CHEN Jianjun ; NAGAYA Ryuji
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 福祉情報工学 / 視覚障害者 / 触図 / 画像処理 / ファジィ推論 / ユーザビリティ評価 / コンピュータ支援システム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Tactile graphics are images that use raised surfaces so that visually impaired people can feel them. In this study, we have developed an algorithm for recognizing hand-drawn figures. We have then conducted a usability evaluation experiment with 13 sighted participants. In this experiment, our software system, which is with an interface of a hand-drawn figure input method, has been compared with the two conventional software systems, Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) and Edel. Here, Edel is a software system for drawing figures of tactile graphics, and its user interface is similar with that of PPT. As results, there was a significant difference between the average scores of our system and PPT, and also there was a significant difference between the average scores of our system and Edel. Our result suggests that a drawing software system with an interface of a hand-drawn input method is better than conventional drawing software systems with mouse-and-keyboard input methods.

Free Research Field

視覚障害者が視覚情報へアクセスするための支援システムに必要な画像処理やパターン認識などの技術開発